In heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology, the FePt based recording medium is heated to above its Curie temperature (Tc) using a laser. The laser generated heat may be guided to the medium using a near-field transducer (NFT) placed near the inductive write head. As the medium cools, writing is then carried out during the refreezing process. Because the bit transitions are determined by the thermal gradients, as opposed to just the write field gradients, much higher linear/track densities can be achievable with HAMR as opposed to previous magnetic recording technologies.
The FePt magnetic recording layer may be grown on an MgO seed layer. However, such designs may lead to in-plane variants, misaligned grains in the FePt magnetic recording layer, and overall poor recording performance by the medium.